"Fires of Life" track listing:

1. Whispers of Heresy2. Fires of Life3. Sword, Spear, Blood, Fire4. Below the Darkest Depths5. Immortal Hunt6. New Infernal Rebirth7. Strength in the Shadow8. This is Battle; This is Our Day9. Withdrawn From All Humanity10. Wash Away the Blood With Rain

"The long and the short of it is that Starkill is essentially Dimmu Borgir meets Dragonforce, with a touch of Children of Bodom."

One of those “instant success” bands, Starkill hit the jackpot early, releasing debut album “Fires of Life” through a major metal label and starting a musical career touring with Hypocrisy and Arsis. Even if that was all just dumb luck, the young‘uns in Starkill clearly know how to construct some solid extreme metal tunes, because the album has already seen heavy comparisons with many other established acts across genre boundaries.

“Fires of Life” features a somewhat odd mix of colliding styles that actually work fairly well together. The base of the sound is dark black metal, filtered through a melodic death metal aesthetic, and then pretty much every song also throws in some tasty power metal riffage. There are loads of keyboards and lots of upbeat guitar acrobatics that interject into otherwise aggressive and menacing music. Topping it all off is a relentless onslaught of blast beating.

With the power metal leanings, and the standard blood and battle themed lyrics, these tracks do have a tendency to go over the top. Fairly long run times (most tracks land between five and seven minutes) give Starkill lots of time to switch between bombastic and devastatingly heavy. “Below the Darkest Depths” is a prime example, having a brutal Dethklok-esque sound in parts and then completely keyboard-focused melodies in others.

For some, Starkill may be a tad too familiar, as the polished sound is essentially a mash-up of several other prominent bands, and there isn’t a whole lot in the way of originality here. The long and the short of it is that Starkill is essentially Dimmu Borgir meets Dragonforce, with a touch of Children of Bodom. The kvlt extremists who don’t like to consider those aforementioned bands as true metal aren’t going to like the baby they birthed either, but if any or all of those acts work for you, this is an album to check out.

Highs: Polished sound that ranges from evil black metal to high-energy power metal.

Lows: The music is a bit over the top and can't quite decide which direction it wants to go.

Bottom line:This young band pulls out the big guns early, effectively mashing together the styles of prominent black, death, and power acts.